Chapter III - Paint, Cut and Polish
Finally, We retrieved the fenders, aprons and other black parts to the paint booth and Dick has
been sanding them to 400 then 600 grit awaiting paint. We do already have the black paint so as
soon as the weather breaks, we hope to get that done.
So the weather did break and we got it done. Unfortunately, I shot some of it too dry and the resulting orange peel will result in some unacceptable sand-through and a re-do at least of the big and obvious parts, the fenders and splash aprons. As you can see, the paint booth was too crowded with some pieces too close to the walls or curtains where the light wasn't great and the fenders were too close to the floor making them harder to reach and see as well as probably disturbing the floor dust. The other photo shows a powder coated wheel. Sure looks good to me.
Why is it that there is never enough time to do it right but always enough time to do it over? So the second attempt at painting the black parts worked much better. I didn't over crowd the paint booth and we kept everything well off the floor. The only pieces in the paint booth were the 4 fenders although we did do the steering column after the fenders were done. After another 3 good coats of paint, we then hand sanded with 1000, 1500, 2000 and 2500, then 3000 on the D/A, all wet. By that time everything was flat and almost with a little sheen. We followed that with Wizards Mystic Cut compound and a rotary polisher with wool pad which took out the sanding marks. Next was the same compound with the number 1 foam pad. We then switched to Wizards Polish on the number 2 then number 3 foam pads. The final step was the same polish on a Meguiars detailing foam pad and the D/A sander at slowed speed. The cut and polish are by Wizards Products. These are samples of what they look like now. Notice the reflections of the building trusses 12 feet away and the straight line reflections of the lights. The light color streaks you see are strings hanging from the trusses that we used a long time ago to hang and paint small parts. And that is, of course, yours truly reflected taking the shots.
By this time it is late summer and we have not visited our paint supplier in a while, mostly due to
Covid-19 and being busy with other things anyway. Well, it was finally time to resume painting so
we took a trip. It turned out that he has added another paint line,
Automotive Art Paints that makes a
beautiful single-stage urethane. Dick had a book with a good color chip for Andalusite Blue, the body
color, and Lance at LM Auto Color was able to mix
from it. With a gallon of that in hand, we decided to first shoot a seal coat of epoxy over the whole
thing again, just to ensure that we had a consistent color and texture under the final paint. For some
reason, there was just way too much junk in the primer. We know the shop is dusty and we will have to
sand everything but this was just too much. Epoxy typically does not sand well and ours was no
exception. We tried it 600 dry which pretty much made a mess. The next day we shot it again and
sanded 600 wet this time which worked acceptably if not perfect. The next day, we scuffed it all down
with gray Scotch Brite then shot 4 coats of the blue on everything, including what will later be black.
The photos show the body just after painting all blue with the masking still in place. The interior was
already done and we were protecting it from overspray. The photo of the door shows that I got a little
better applying the paint and it was somewhat smoother than the body as indicated by the reflections.
After painting the body, we moved it out of the booth and retrieved the hood and doors and painted them
the same way, seal coat then color, and moved them back to storage. These photos are of the hood pieces.
After a week, we began sanding the blue parts of the body with the primary intent of ensuring every area
that needed tape for the black would be completely smooth, eliminating any possibility of paint blurring
the edges. The belt line and the upper back were to be painted black next. The black got painted without
too much drama except for all the masking that was required to protect the blue. I managed to apply the
paint smoother this time but in the process, got a couple of significant sags that had to be dealt with.
But it did sand much easier, a worthwhile trade-off, I guess.
After the black dried for a week, we hand sanded everything to 1000 grit wet. Some of the body blue had a little more orange peel and we did start with 600 on it where necessary. Next we went to 1500 and that is probably the biggest challenge. We know those 1000 scratches will show up during the polishing stage but you really don't see them at this point. You just have to sand enough to trust that it is done. The result of an error here is you get to do the next four steps before discovering the error then start all over again. We know this from experience. We followed that with 2000 then 2500 and finally 3000 on the D/A. These are the same steps as the fenders above. It is still far from finished but these photos show it sanded to 3000. Get some pretty good shine when the light hits it at a sharp angle. Yes, it is still hard to tell the blue from the black, under artificial light anyway.
We never found a suitable sample of the Niagara Blue Light for the window reveals. Dick did find a RGB
formula for it that I produced on the computer and color printer. It seemed pretty dark though. He also
found some old photos of the car after he painted it before and liked the color. The command decision
was made to try for something at least close and that he liked. We had Lance mix a pint of that and
proceeded to paint the reveals, including the windshield frame. Here they are with the masking removed.
The rest of the body is D/A sanded to 3000 grit as shown.
As we started cutting the body paint with the wool pad, we discovered a thin spot on the lower right
side just before it started the turn to the back. It looks like I will have to respray that whole
section. Here it is all masked and ready to repaint that lower body section. You probably can't see
the thin spot with it already sanded to 600 grit but it is just above the wheel well and just before
it enters the big curve toward the rear. The other photo is of the upper back right above that point
that is now covered in masking paper. Yes, it is a vanity shot but intended to be of the paint, not
the painter or photographer.
Well, as we got to the polishing phase, a couple of flaws cropped up, disappointing although not
totally unexpected. The left photo shows an example of overspray. When we painted the Niagara Blue
Light at the window reveals, we spent the better part of a day carefully masking everything else.
Unfortunately, that was not adequate. The photo on the left shows the upper-left rear corner. On it
you can see the clear outline of a tape mark. Where the flash hits it otherwise the sparkle is from
very light paint mist overspray. Apparently we did not mask well enough. There was more of this on
the gas tank and the bottom half of both doors. We painted the doors laying flat on saw horses. I
was careful to always paint standing between the part and the exhaust fan but that still was not
enough. A few minutes with the 3000 grit on the D/A does remove it fairly quickly though.
The other problem is sanding scratches. At the first step of color sanding with 1000 grit by hand, it is pretty easy to see when you are done. The shiny spots due to any orange peel effect all just finally disappear. At subsequent steps, with 1500, 2000 and 2500, it is not so obvious. All you are doing is just removing any scratches from the previous step and replacing them with finer and finer scratches. Since it is already flat or dull, these scratches do not show up. You simply have to sand at each step until you are sure there is nothing left from the previous. If you skip a step or spend too little time at any step then the scratches from the previous step will be there forever. You will not really see them until you get to the polishing steps when things start to get shiny again. So, if you look closely at the right photo, you will see 1000 grit sanding scratches on the door just below the belt line. The remedy is, return to 1500 then redo all 7 steps of sanding and cutting to get back to the first polish.
And here are two more mistakes we made, both related to the Niagara Blue Light window reveals. First, we should have picked the color and painted them before anything else. If we had done so then we would only have to mask them to paint other colors. As it was, the whole car had to be masked just to paint the reveals. As noted above, we did not do that adequately. Second, as far as I know, all blue pigments are pretty transparent. We should have laid down a seal coat of the light primer over the dark blue on the reveals before painting them. We did not and the paint did not cover perfectly, leaving visible signs of the dark blue showing through in places. Now, to avoid having to remask the whole car again and risk additional overspray, I am having to touch up the majority of the reveals with a brush.
Meanwhile, we decided to remove everything from the temporary spray booth. The details are given
here. It's a little slow but I guess brush touch up is not so bad though.
If you use a really good artist's brush and thin the paint just a little more than normal and apply
with long smooth strokes, it really lays down pretty flat with very little sign of brush marks. Then,
following all the above steps of cut and polish, you can end up with a final product that belies its
application method. With this really transparent blue, it still takes several coats though. In the
photos, notice the reflections of the nearby window in the right rear corner. Also finally, with
sunlight from the window, you can clearly see the Andalusite blue is not just a "lighter black." It
even shows up on the firewall.
Well, we spent the last several weeks working on the top and interior.
Unfortunately, we did a significant amount of damage to the already painted and "ready for
show" stuff. The left sample is from the right upper back. As you can see it has been pretty
badly scratched; this happened sometime during the fabric top installation. I hope they will polish
out but will probably have to go all the way back to 1500 or maybe even 1000 grit. I apologize for
the "selfie" but I tried several angles and that was the only one that really showed the
scratches. The right sample is a protrusion, a dent from the inside, made by a nail when installing
the headliner. You can see the evidence as a ripple and unique point in the second light reflection
from the top, near the hidem line. That will not polish out. It will have to be stripped and hammered
below the surface since access from behind is not possible without taking down the headliner then
filled and surfaced. Finally, the entire left upper back will have to be repainted, all the way back
to primer and surfacer. That, of course, will be followed by a complete cut and polish again. Also,
one of the upper hood pieces fell off a shelf at some time causing a dent pretty much in the center.
It may or may not be possible to repair that without repainting.
This and some glue residue here and there is all we have found so far. There may be more when we finally remove the masking tape applied in so many places to protect the paint. Time will tell.